Fund to boost police morale

CHONGQING: With a police force ravaged by allegations of corruption and sheltering gangsters, the municipality's police chief sought to boost sagging morale among officers by creating a fund for the families of deceased officers.

As 50 fresh recruits took their oath of loyalty, Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun led his subordinates in paying tribute to police martyrs, and said a fund to compensate policemen who are ill or who die in future missions would be established this year.

Though the size of the fund was not disclosed, "the event boosted the confidence of demoralized police," said Professor Fang Ling, head of the Laws Research Center of the Chongqing Academy of Social Science.